Laughing Heart Hostel: Day 26

The wind woke us up before our alarms went off. The night had been cold, wet, and windy, but none of that mattered since a warm shower and bed waited for us at the bottom of Bluff Mountain. Hot Springs was on the foggy horizon for us this morning as we broke down camp. Even though Hot Springs was ahead, it was still a 13 mile hike to get there and my feet were still very tender when walking. I finally figured out that I needed new inserts for my shoes. Hopefully that will help the planters fasciitis. Since 13 miles didn’t seem too far, we decided to eat a quick non cooked breakfast, eat a lot of snacks, and not stop for lunch. Big mistake. When will we ever learn? We set off into the fog and began yet another damp day along the Appalachian Trail. “Just think, all you have to do is push and you’ll be in town we can totally do that” Danny said to me as I stopped for the 4th time while climbing up Bluff Mountain. I wish I had his endurance I thought to myself. This was the only major climb of the day, but that does not mean that the other hills won’t feel like enormous climbs as well. There was something about climbing when exhausted when even the slightest incline feels like death to you. With every bend and turn, another slightly too easy to be a climb but slightly too hard to be a little hill came into view. By the 5th one, I was mad. Originally the plan was to nero in Hot Springs, but the way I was feeling there was no way that was happening. I needed a full day to recover. With every step I took, I felt like my feet were balloons and every step was going to make them burst. Not good. 3 miles away from Hot Springs, the rain started falling heavily. At this point there was no use in getting upset by the rain. We had an hour tops to deal with it before we could get dry and with that I took on a new approach to the rain. “I welcome the rain! The rain is me and I am it!” I screamed as I threw my face to the sky. “I’ve never been this soggy” Danny yelled. We both laughed and began singing every song we knew that had to do with rain including classics likes It’s Raining Men, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Umbrella. By the end of our hike we were losing it. Giggling to ourselves with every squelch of our shoes, we splashed in puddles down the mountain. There’s always going to be a silver lining to the day and being able to share that with your best friend makes the day even better. When we finally made it out of the rain, Laughing Heart Hostel was right on the side of the trail. This was the Beauty of Hot Springs. Hot Springs was a famous trail town where the AT ran right down the main strip of town. Appalachian Trail art and logos were splattered all over town. On a normal year, hundreds for they hikers would walk these streets, but with the state of our world as we knew it, we were the only ones. We had heard of a sheriff kicking thru hikers out of the town and many thru hikers getting dirty looks from locals, but we thankfully experienced none of that. Most businesses had limited hours and the restaurants were only takeout. We had arrived two days before phase two of their reopening started. Even though North Carolina had reopened, many of its counties decided to remain quarantined longer, Madison County, where Hot Springs was located, was still under a pretty serious lock down. Thankfully, the hostel, Dollar General, outfitter, and diner takeout was all we needed. We sat down on the front porch of Laughing Heart sopping wet and waited for the Hostel Manager. The manager was named Denim Tortoise. You meet the most interesting people along the trail. Denim Tortoise started his thru hike on the Continental Divide Trail and connected it to the American Discovery Trail. He then hopped on the AT and walked out of the woods to Laughing Heart and never Left. He had worked as the innkeeper at the Laughing Heart Lodge and helped manage Laughing Heart Hostel ever since. He showed us around the hostel which was homey and quaint. For those of you who don’t know what a hostel is. It is usually a bunk room with a common area along with some private rooms and a kitchen. Not only did the hostel have a kitchen, it was stocked with spices, canned food, and items left behind by other thru hikers that had stayed before. Thru hikers have a bad habit of buying too much food when we come into town. There were always leftovers that couldn’t fit in your food bag or unopened snacks you bought in a frenzy when you walked in a store that didn’t get eaten. The beauty of hostels was that not two are alike. Each one has a personality and it’s own special quirks. We paid for two nights and two separate rooms and immediately ran to the showers. I will never take a warm shower for granted again after walking in the woods. I got out of the shower to find Kyle already making spaghetti on the little plug in stove top in the kitchen. He looked at me with joy and hunger in his eyes. “I’m making spaghetti!” he gleefully said. “I can see that” I replied laughing. “I’m going to enjoy the heck out of this spaghetti” he said as he returned to his pot of boiling noodles. We spent the evening recuperating and walking around town. Hot Springs was a downtown that consisted of about a 4 block strip of stores and restaurants and then turned into beautiful rural countryside. It was small, but perfect. When we returned from our exploitation, we were greeted with an older gentleman that was also thru hiking. His trail name was Senior Moment. Senior Moment was thru hiking one month at a time and had an interesting set up. He would drive to a hostel, ask them to drop him somewhere else, and then hike back to the hostel for a couple days. This way he had somewhere to park his car and could do little stretches at a time. In between, he would go home to his wife and grandkids. Senior Moment was one of the first thru hikers we had gotten to have a longer conversation with than when we were out on trail. He told us about his experiences on the trail and we shared ours. It was nice to not feel alone on trail.